First of all, you will want to be sure that your oven can handle an 18-inch pizza. Most can't or it will be a very tight fit. If your oven can handle that size, do you have a stone or tiles that can accommodate that size or will you be using an 18-inch screen?

If you are one of the lucky ones and can make the 18-inch, let me know and I will reformulate the Lehmann NY style recipe to give you the ingredients and quantities you might want to use.

As Pete said, most ovens won't accomodate an 18" pizza (I would give my left arm to have an oven that big). The biggest NY pizza I can make is about 17", if I really stretch it and get it perfectly off my pizza peel into my oven.

As far as recipes go, if you click the "Pizza Making" logo in the top left side of your screen, you'll be taken to this site's home page, which lists several recipes, including NY pizza. I don't believe the modified Lehmann recipe Pete mentioned is up there yet though, and it's a good one, so you might want to hold out for that one

For the single size pizza, I think that the 16-inch recipe may be the best recipe to use since it is more characteristic of a NY style than the smaller sizes. That's the recipe I reworked for Friz to use and it sounds like he and others have had good results with it. I also think that the description should be reworked to conform to home use, using a stand mixer.

Take the reins and run with it! I'd like to keep the page somewhat simple and uncluttered, like DKM's Chicago Page. Maybe a paragraph or two of commentary but we'll need step-by-step instructions and lots of pictures (a picture is worth a thousand words, you know!) I'd like to keep the ingredient table as close as possible to what's there which includes a single pizza by weight and volume and the bulk recipe.

Yvonne Marie

Hello, thanks for replying. Yes I will try to use the single crust recipe you mentioned and let you know. Being a baker, my oven is enough for 18" pizza. I just want to create something more then the usual cakes and pastries. I will probably be using unglazed tiles. Best regards

The recipe for the 18-inch pizza dough is one I scaled down from a commercial recipe of Tom Lehmann, an expert on pizza dough at the American Institute of Baking and a frequent writer on the subject. The recipe is for a NY style pizza using high-gluten flour (around 14% protein). If my conversions are correct, a dough ball weighing 150 grams would come to a bit over 5 ounces and a dough ball weighing 200 grams would come to a bit over 7 ounces. Both would be far below what is typically used for a NY style dough.

The recipe for the 18-inch pizza dough is one I scaled down from a commercial recipe of Tom Lehmann, an expert on pizza dough at the American Institute of Baking and a frequent writer on the subject. The recipe is for a NY style pizza using high-gluten flour (around 14% protein). If my conversions are correct, a dough ball weighing 150 grams would come to a bit over 5 ounces and a dough ball weighing 200 grams would come to a bit over 7 ounces. Both would be far below what is typically used for a NY style dough.

Maybe you can clarify.

Peter

ok well i make a pizza called the Pizza Italiana....thats the name given to the most popular pizza eaten in italy. ....usually to make the pizza italiana you only need to weigh the ball around 180 grams...then you simply open it up 12 inches, the standard size...however if i want to open up the pizza even more...i can probably get it to over 20 inches...i think the confusion here is that many people dont know how to properly open up a pizza.... ive seen people pick up the pizza in their hands and begin to pull it apart? what the heck is that...no one in italy when making a thin crust pizza does that...the way to open up a pizza by hand is to pull it apart on the counter top...the only time it leaves the counter is when your getting rid of the flour

DC PM,What type of flour can you stretch to 20" with such a small ball? I assume you are referring to an Italian flour such as Caputo 00.

My experience with Caputo 00 (Blue label) is that it is too soft to flip in the air. That action would probably cause a tear. So pressing it out on the bench makes sense. On the other hand, high protein flour based balls can be hand tossed with little fear of tearing.

I just made a batch of Caputo 00 dough using a modified verison of Pete-zza's authentic Napoletana recipe and would be interested in cutting down on the ball size to make a 15" - 16" pizza. What weight would you suggest? One of the benefits to me of using a smaller ball is to cut down on the extra carbs associated with the lower protein level of the Caputo flour.

NY style pizzas come in different sizes but a common size is the 16-inch size. Different pizza operators also use different dough ball weights for the 16-inch size, from around 20 oz. to 26 oz. A dough ball weighing 20 oz. would be around 567 grams, and a dough ball weighing 26 oz. would be around 737 grams.

When I originally posted the recipe for the Caputo 00 as received from Caputo via the importer, I added up all the ingredients as specified in ounces. The total came to about 54 oz. Since the recipe talks about individual dough ball weights of 8-9 oz., this suggests that one can make 6 to 7 pizzas with the 54 ounces of dough. If each dough ball is to be made into a pizza with a diameter of about 10 inches (or a radius of 5 inches), as suggested in the recipe, then the thickness factor for such a pizza is around 0.10 (for an 8-oz. dough ball) or 0.11 (for a 9-oz. dough ball).

Using the 0.10-0.11 thickness factor as calculated above from the recipe itself, for a 15-inch size, you would need a dough ball weight of 3.14 x 7.5 x 7.5 x 0.10-0.11, or roughly 17.7-19.4 oz. For a 16-inch size, you would need 3.14 x 8 x 8 x 0.10-0.11, or roughly 20-22.1 oz.

It may well be that DC Pizza Maker is not following the same recipe for a Neapolitan style pizza, or he may be making it thinner, so it will be very interesting to get his take on what dough ball weight you will need.

The recipe for the 18-inch pizza dough is one I scaled down from a commercial recipe of Tom Lehmann, an expert on pizza dough at the American Institute of Baking and a frequent writer on the subject. The recipe is for a NY style pizza using high-gluten flour (around 14% protein). If my conversions are correct, a dough ball weighing 150 grams would come to a bit over 5 ounces and a dough ball weighing 200 grams would come to a bit over 7 ounces. Both would be far below what is typically used for a NY style dough.

Maybe you can clarify.

Peter

im sure this guy is an expert on New York Style....i guess im getting wrapped in the version of pizza that I make...the Pizza Italiana where i only need to use 180 gram ball to make a 12 to 16 inch pizza if i want

i think it would help me more Pete if you described to me the characteristics of a New York Style Pizza....isnt the New York Style thin crust yet with enough hold to serve by the slice? it also has puffy borders right? im guessing the New York style pizza emphasizes on having a 500 plus gram ball to make a pizza because either 1) the amount of grams helps the pizza hold firm when customers pick it up to eat OR 2) pizza makers in american do not know the proper and andvanced methods to opening up a pizza and therefore need alot of dough to work with?

DC PM,What type of flour can you stretch to 20" with such a small ball? I assume you are referring to an Italian flour such as Caputo 00.

My experience with Caputo 00 (Blue label) is that it is too soft to flip in the air. That action would probably cause a tear. So pressing it out on the bench makes sense. On the other hand, high protein flour based balls can be hand tossed with little fear of tearing.

I just made a batch of Caputo 00 dough using a modified verison of Pete-zza's authentic Napoletana recipe and would be interested in cutting down on the ball size to make a 15" - 16" pizza. What weight would you suggest? One of the benefits to me of using a smaller ball is to cut down on the extra carbs associated with the lower protein level of the Caputo flour.

it doesnt matter what type of flour you use....I can open up a pizza with any flour...be it. King Arthur Special, caputo, Sir Lancelot, 5 stagioni(only found in italy), King Arthur whole weat

it matters on HOW you open the pizza....its hard to explain in a forum the hand techniques to opening up a pizza the proper italian way...but what i can tell you is that the dough should NEVER leave the marble counter except when your slapping away the excess flour